1938 diner moved to new home at Lincoln Highway museum

Temperatures in the 70s and clear skies made conditions right Friday evening for the restored 1938 Serro's Diner to complete a three-mile move from a Latrobe storage facility to its new home at the expanded Lincoln Highway Experience museum along Route 30 in Unity.

“It's not weather-proof, so that's why today is a terrific day to move it,” said Olga Herbert, executive director of the nonprofit Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor that operates the transportation-themed museum. “We didn't have to worry about snow or rain.

“We were excited to see it on the flatbed.”

Professional moving company Ramsey Machine of Ligonier hauled the diner without incident on a low-boy trailer. From OPCO Inc. on West Harrison Avenue, where it was stored for the past 14 years, the diner made its way along Ligonier Street and crossed the Loyalhanna Creek on the Route 217 bridge, near Kingston Dam.

Vehicles on eastbound Route 30 were halted temporarily as the diner traveled against traffic a short distance to reach the museum grounds. Ramsey's crew backed the diner the last few feet into a waiting museum bay — with the help of a little Murphy's Oil Soap.

The liquid soap was used to free a stuck bolt and adjust the trailer's height as it backed across a hump at the entrance to the bay.

There was little room to spare as Ramsey workers eased the diner — rising to 13 feet, 6 inches atop the trailer — under the angled roof of the museum's new wing.

“It's a little like threading a needle,” Herbert said. As a precaution, the diner's 40 some windows were criss-crossed with tape and light bulbs were removed from fixtures for the big move.

A tourist cabin that stood at routes 259 and 30 in Ligonier Township also made the move from OPCO to the museum.

Herbert said a marble work surface will replace a rusted grill in the diner, which will serve pie and ice cream or a healthy fruit alternative to museum visitors. A bed and chairs once used at the Shirey's Lake View Motel near Ligonier have been sand-blasted by Electro-Kote of Irwin and will be used to furnish the museum's cabin.

The 11.5-by-45-foot diner was bought in 1938 by brothers Lou and Joe Serro of Herminie, who operated their eatery at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Irwin exit until 1958, when the structure was moved to Youngwood and renamed the Willow Diner. In 1990, it was acquired by the Senator John Heinz History Center, which donated it to the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor in 2003. The restoration was completed in 2013, the same year in which the diner received the prestigious Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Award from Preservation PA.

The museum addition also houses a Packard vehicle and an historic neon motel sign.

Herbert hopes to have the addition and the diner open to the public in late May or early June.

Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-6622, jhimler@tribweb.com or via Twitter @jhimler_news.